A blog about sewing machine repairs,but mainly my hobbies which include old school role playing games, science fiction,films, horror, and general geekery. Sit down and stay a spell.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Under The Influence Of A Cracked Moon OSR Sorcery As Commentary For A Post Apocalyptic Campaign

"The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet,
hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction!
Man's civilization is cast in ruin!Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...A
strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super
science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice!
With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his
strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of
evil.He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!"

Last night I shut down social media & threw in Thundarr The Barbarian on to the blu ray. The episode in question was Secret of the Black Pearl. Now this episode was in fact very pivtol to the entire run of Thundarr & features one of my all time favorite vile villains Gemini the wizard. Gemini is a real power behind the wasteland in this episode, he's cagey, smart, & one of the true wizards with access to relics but he's also a whiny little bitch. He eventually reappears twice but there are some very interesting things about this episode. Especially how they relate to domain play, relics, & Adventurer, Conqueror, King & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers.

Gemini has access to a lot of relic weaponry, vehicles and all kinds of old Earth style technology & throughout the series most of the wizards do. There's also something really off about Thundarr's world from the on set. Relics, technologies, magic & weirdness don't match anything in our world at all. That's because its not our world or even Thundarr's world for that matter. At some point in the past of Thundarr's world the United States military was messing around with time space gate technologies and contacted a parallel Earth. Relations between the two worlds were alright for a time but there was a magical pollution between the worlds. Mutation, sorcery, the rise of the wizards, and even the Empire of the Petal Throne like artifact the 'black pearl' are from this other Earth. What is the black pearl? Well its concentrated magical energy that is capable of nullifying any magic it comes in contact with. Personally I think that the Unite States military were messing around with the magic & gate technology of this other world, they brought down the 'runaway planet' upon themselves and the inhabitants of this other world merging the two dimensions into one.

So what does all of this have to do with Adventurer, Conqueror, King & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Quite a bit actually, I think that just like in ACK's your looking at wizards who have ascended levels of cosmic ability and established domains as well as magical relics. They're actually survivors of the holocaust who have been growing in power and mutating for two thousand years. Gemini aka Janus the cyborg wizard is a prime example of the sort of mutations and outright evil we're talking about. He's got his minions in the form of the groundlings (aka his rat men), a full domain of degenerated humans ala Apes Victorious. and a wasteland full of mutant tribes, trackless wilderness, NPC henchmen & assorted mutated monsters.

It whispers and suggests things to those who use it & is often used to create technological magic relics. We see a ton of these in Thundarr's cartoons.

In fact why is the nuclear missiles in Beneath the Planet of the Apes as powerful as they are? Well because they were also messing around with retro 70's alternative dimensional gate way time travel & faster then light technologies. The very presence of these technologies mutates those around it warping both mind and body. Some of the technological creations of Kamandi's world also seemed to follow these lines.

But another aspect that we see is the return of the old gods of chaos & law but law is far more subtle in a Thundarr kitchen sink approach campaign. As I said yesterday over the past two years I've made careful purchases of OSR products that
work well together such as OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Fantastic Heroes &
Witchery, ACK's, AS&SH, Dark Albion, and many others. This was done
in order to have a palette of OSR goodness that would work well with
original Dungeons & Dragons as well as Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons first edition. Which beings up the Kickstarter juggernaut that is the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition. Thundarr's world always seemed to me to an Old Earth not a step away from the Borea Winds. A place where PC's might start as cavemen & end up as barbarian adventurers.

Xathoqqua/Tsathoggua presence in the wasteland or adventure location in question in fiction seems to break the local laws of time & space. There are several monsters in both Marvel comic's Planet of the Apes & other 70's publications that would be perfect avatars or of Xathoqqua/Tsathoggua's kind that fit into the paradigm of Thundarr The Barbarian. The toad god fits easily into other games and Realms of Crawling Chaos has some stats for use with Labyrinth Lord style adventures. He also appears in Petty Gods which meant that he was easily adaptable as the big bad for a Dark Albion adventure and corresponds to several characteristics for Cults of Chaos for the French Frogmen.

As I said I happen to take the Thundarr kitchen sink approach to my gaming. What does all of this have to do with the technologies, mutants, and horrors of Thundarr don't worry we'll get to that tomorrow.

About Me

My name is Eric I started gaming with Dungeons & Dragons white box back in 1977 & haven't looked back. I'm a crafter, sewer, sewing machine repair man who also happens to be a Dungeon Master. Thanks for taking the time to read this.